The invention relates to a joint sealing tape for asphalted areas, such as asphalted roads and pathways, comprising a molded mixture of bitumen, fillers and permanently adhesive polymers not including a carrier, i.e., a solvent. In addition, the invention relates to a joint sealing system based on the said joint sealing tape. In contrast to a large group of prior art elastomer sealing tapes, designed as specific, mainly complex sections, in particular used in concrete joints (see DE 89 14 261 U1, for instance), the plasticity and adhesive strength of the bitumen components is exploited in order to allow sealing of irregularly shaped joints.
Based on optimum selection of dimensional stability for transport and storage on the one hand and plasticity and adhesive strength for the actual sealing function on the other, joint sealing tapes of the type described above may eliminate additional expenses for the use of one or two substrate tapes (DE 38 43 574 C2; DE 44 03 101 A1) for layers of different elasticity for adaptation to the joint walls (DE 30 45 738 C1) or for a special coat of adhesive (DE 196 03 896 A1).
The documented state of technology, as shown in FIGS. 3 to 6, in which a sealing tape 5 is inserted vertically into a joint between two asphalt layers 1.1 and 1.2 and is rolled into a mushroom or hat shape 5.1 (FIG. 4), is general knowledge. It is easy to see that the joint width and cross sections of any sealing tape used must be accurately adapted to each other, i.e. over the full length of the joint, a feature which is hard to maintain in the construction industry. Tight sealing, as shown in FIG. 4, can in fact only be randomly achieved when a vertically arranged joint sealing tape accurately fills the joint, projecting from it by approximately 1 cm. When a joint sealing tape is too thick, it cannot be inserted into a joint. When it is too wide, it will project too far over the joint and is not being flattened by rolling but rather "folded over" (both conditions not shown). Finally, FIGS. 5 and 6 show the case of a joint sealing tape 5 which is too narrow, although it is easy to introduce into a joint but does not fill the joint. In winter in particular, cracks 6 occur in a rolled joint in accordance with FIG. 6 on either side of the joint sealing tape 5. In all cases, including the "randomly" sealing tape of FIGS. 3 and 4, the bottom section of the joint sealing tape is superfluous, cannot contribute to its sealing function and should actually be avoided in the interest of saving resources.
Finally, a molded, non-carrier, bitumen-based sealing material is prior art, which may be used as joint sealing tape, predominantly comprising soft bitumen, rubber flakes, stone dust, an oil-type mineral oil fraction and a short-fiber filler, such as cellulose powder (DE 93 13 030 U1). The composition of this sealing material comprises soft and harder grades, with the latter being provided for pre-cast concrete construction and not necessarily suitable for asphalted areas without any additional processing.